Say Goodbye to Pinterest and Hello to Pearltrees

A few weeks ago, I began to use a new service called Pearltrees, and its accompanying iPad app. Since that time, I have explored the service, shared and gathered pearls, and raved about it to every person I can think of. Now its time in the spotlight on iSource is well-deserved.

What is it?

With all the hubbub of syncing bookmarks and how “everybody is doing it” (Safari with iCloud, Chrome, etc.), Pearltrees quietly stands to the side as a more powerful, intuitive, and beautiful way to organize what you uncover on the web – as a Pearl. Drop a web link into the “Pearler” and connect that site (err, Pearl) with whatever you think it best fits with.

It’s “Pinterest” meets “bookmark syncing” meets your personal “mind map.” And it is an awesome way to organize and share what interests you!

Recently Pinterest has exploded onto the social networking scene. It’s a neat, digital scrapbook way to organize the pictures you take or discover online. And while I love it, I have learned of its limitations when I was asked about locating and sharing educational websites for teacher friends. In particular, if a website doesn’t have a picture – and frankly some research websites don’t – then the pin is pretty nondescript and relies on your written description.

With Pearltrees, I can “pearl” (a new verb) a note, a picture, or website link through copy & paste – or use a web browser extension/add-on/bookmarklet; title it anything I want; and share it on Twitter, Facebook, and email. There’s even a collaboration feature.

Want to find other “pearls” put there? Hit Explore, and browse related pearls (i.e. websites and notes) from other users, pluck them from their trees, set them in your tray (wouldn’t it be funny if that were basket shaped?), and drag them to your own Pearltrees.

I expect Pearltrees to explode in use too. I know I will be sharing the service with many state educators who are eager to collaborate on resources (Common Core State Standards anyone?).

Featured

http://pearltrees.com/brandonsteili — just getting started, but I’d love to see what you’re going to do with the education links. Being a sys admin in a school district, I can see how this would be beneficial for our educators.

Nice review! One question from a longtime user, though… I’ve been wanting to get into using Pearltrees more on my iPhone (don’t own an iPad), since I’m a big fan of the regular browser app. Having the pearltrees bookmarklet in my laptop Chrome browser makes it simple to add new links from when I’m at the computer, but how do I easily add a link to pearltrees when I’m surfing around on IOS Safari (without opening the Pearltrees app)? I’d like a safari bookmarklet just like the one for Pocket, for example. Thanks in advance! 🙂

Jay

I’ve checked the FAQs section of Pearltrees and don’t see any reference to their newly-released iPhone app and installing the Safari bookmarklet.

I have, however, followed their iPad instructions and successfully installed the bookmarklet in iPhone’s Safari! Because the instructions will require pictures to walk you through it, I’ll do a post on how to do this later this week or weekend. Keep an eye out!